New Louisville bear statue hibernating in vet clinic

New carving continues its reprieve from the intersection of Main Street and South Boulder Road

By Kimberli Turner Colorado Hometown Weekly

Posted:
11/12/2012 06:37:11 PM MST

Veterinarian Mike Moran examines the Official Louisville Bear statue on Monday, Nov. 12, at the Animalhouse Veterinary Clinic, 889 East South Boulder Road, in Louisville. The new statue was created earlier this year and will replace the original bear that stood at the intersection of Main Street and South Boulder Road for more than 20 years. It hasn't been mounted to its post yet due to a crack in the wood that extends from the bear's chest down its belly. (Kimberli Turner/Colorado Hometown Weekly)

Halloween has come and gone and Thanksgiving is looming, but the Official Louisville Bear statue that usually stands near the intersection of Main Street and South Boulder Road -- and dressed for such occasions -- has been in hibernation since March.

The statue belongs to Animalhouse Veterinary Clinic and, after the bear lost its arm in the summer of 2011, Animalhouse staff discovered the statue was rotting from the inside out.

Lew Hammer of The Wild Wood Studio in Lafayette was commissioned to carve a new bear using the original one as a model. The clinic's owner, Holly Keith, hosted a welcome back barbecue for the new bear on March 12 -- the 60th birthday of Keith's late husband Dan, the former head veterinarian at Animalhouse who passed away in 2010.

Holly said Dan loved the original bear, using it as a landmark to explain to friends and customers where the office was located. Dan owned the lot the building sits on at 889 East South Boulder Road, and he had the clinic built 26 years ago.

The statue was taken down after the party to allow Hammer the time to finish detailing and painting it, but the bear hasn't shown his face outside since.

The reason?

The new Louisville Bear, carved from a cottonwood that was treated to help prevent rotting, actually has a crack running from the middle of its chest down its belly.

"We're trying to figure out how to get that fixed before we get him up," said the Keiths' son and Animalhouse hospital manager Brian Hanson. "We will get him back up, we just want to make sure we aren't building another (bear) next year."

The bear incurred the crack earlier this year while it was being stored in Hanson's garage and the wood continued to dry.

Hammer hopes to fix the crack with a filler, Hanson said. The hospital manager said it's in the staff's -- and the bear's -- best interest to wait to have the crack mended, leaving the statue to Hammer and the live animals to Animalhouse.

Hanson said he hopes to have the bear mounted to its stump at the intersection and waving at passersby before the end of the year.

Animalhouse staff is also formulating a program to get area students involved in designing costumes for the bear. They aim to continue selling the Official Louisville Bear statue calendar -- like the one staff created earlier this year to raise funds to fix the statue -- and include photographs of the costumed bear so kids can be proud of their design.

The veterinary clinic received such a litany of calls and visits from adults and kids inquiring about the bear's status since March, that Hanson moved it inside the office last month to rest next to the front desk. They still get visits and calls, though.

Hanson said that he didn't initially realize the bear would have such an impact on the community, but it's nice to see his father's legacy remain a vibrant part of Louisville.

"We get people who stop in here with their pets and some who don't even have pets here who come in and ask, 'Where's the bear?'" he said. Animalhouse veterinarian Mike Moran started with the clinic Sept. 1 after he and his wife and four children moved to Louisville from San Francisco.

"We really moved here because of the bear, he's big in the bay area," Moran joked about the Louisville bear phenomenon. "For a newly arrived transplant, it's amazing. I'm as much behind it as anyone else to get him back to his heyday."